there are days...

days that i feel like all i'm doing is laundry, tripping over toys that i just put away, feeding little people that i just fed, breaking up fights, saying "close the refrigerator", "no, you can't have fruit snacks for breakfast", repeating myself, going to another birthday party, attending another playdate, repeating myself, singing the song from mickey mouse clubhouse, repeating myself and wondering when my last shower was, all while dreaming of lying stretch mark free on a beach somewhere.

we all have those days, right?
please tell me you have those days.

i've been swallowed by those days lately. me and my kids haven't been getting along too well lately. translation: i have had no patience lately and i haven't been the kind of mom that i want to be. i haven't been the kind of mom that i know God wants me to be. that's tough to swallow and it's hard to admit. even more, it's not a fun place to be as a mom.

yesterday lysa terkeurst wrote a great post (like always) and urged her readers to leave a verse that encourages us in times when we are acting less than encouraged. times when we snap at our husbands. times when we want to put a for sale sign around our kids necks and stand them on the corner.

as i read through the comments and verses left by others, i was struck with the realization that the recent struggle between me and my kids has little to do with my kids behavior and more to do with me. the comments and verses reminded me that i can't try and go this alone or my life will be filled with "those days". i don't want that. i don't want that for my kids.

i am a reactor. too often i react to something my kids say or do without thinking about my actions that follow, and too often i end up wishing i would have acted differently.

i want to be a responder. i want to stop, see what God is teaching me and what He wants me to teach my kids. i want to pay attention to what my kids are really saying to me and when i kiss my kids goodnight i want to be thankful, not regretful.

i encourage you to read the post and comments here. lysa was kind enough to quote me here, but more importantly, she reminded us that we are all in this together.

if you're having one of those days and you need a good laugh, go see "confessions of a shopaholic". it is a great movie with a dancing scene that made us laugh so hard we cried! somebody in the theater even snorted and that made us laugh even harder!

happy wednesday!
a

makin' mama cry...

today emily brought home a lot of work from the past quarter, including some projects that they did for christmas.

i cried when i read this...

i think the true spirit of christmas is...
"beleiving the Holy Spirit. spending time with your family. praise the lord. know that Jesus died on the cross. know God will forgive our sins. merry christmas! emily kahler"

she gets it.

happy friday (again)
a

economic stimulus

i heard something on the radio today that shocked me beyond belief and i am still astonished.

it has been determined that if our country spent one million dollars every day since the birth of Jesus that we still would not have spent as much as congress is spending on the economic stimulus.

that blew me away. i pray that it actually makes a difference. that is a lot of debt for my children to carry.

happy friday
a

and please, i didn't write this to start a political comment wars, just some facts and my own little opinion.

wordless wednesday

...is a pretty lucky guy to have a sister that loves him

enough to make his name out of legos.

happy wednesday

a

NBA Jam Session

nick took emily to the nba jam session in phoenix on saturday. they had a blast (thanks aunt linda), and both agree that it was the perfect way to spend valentine's day! it's so sweet that they go on fun little "dates" like that, she's such a lucky little gal!

here are some pictures of the day; you can definitely tell that they had fun!

i love that it looks like she has thrown the large decorative ball... so funny!

white girls can jump (i know, i know, but i couldn't resist)

lebron james' shoes

happy tuesday-ish
a

ps... i'm digging the lowercase, even thought it's not entirely intentional... i think i may need a new keyboard (or my kids need to figure out what they did to make only certain letters capitalize and my control button not work). who knows. and yes, i typed the title before the fateful round of computer time for my kids.

Who are you people?!

I'm sure that a lot of you out there, especially bloggers (because almost all of us have one!), know of this little thing that I love called Sitemeter. It is a site that has the capability to track who visits my blog, what pages they look at, how long they visit, where they are, what page they exit to, etc.

So, my question... who are you? I know who some are; if you check from work your company name shows up and the locations sometimes give it away too (I only have two friends in Chile!). Technology is amazing to me!

Anyway, leave me a comment, I would love to know who's dropping by. And I know there are a lot of you... the numbers don't lie!

Oh, and now that I mentioned technology it reminded me of a video that totally blew my mind. I'll have to post it later. Right now I have a little guy with ear infections that needs some snuggling!

Happy Monday!
A

Wordless Wednesday

My favorite flower in my yard right now.
Happy Wednesday!
A